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RIO Outbound Short shooting head baby ! shooting heads for long, fast casts with big flies !! RIO surfes on the success of their famous Outbound Short, that are very popular in the community of the guys who go after predator fishs, and now proposes those tapers as shooting heads alone, without the integrated running line. Why? Because thanks to a running line that has a wide loop at the end, as you can see on many running lines used for spey, you can change your head (and your flyline density) in two minutes, without having to strip down the reel (thanks to a loop connection). And moreover, those shooting heads can be stored in those small wallets and you can easily have three flyline densities with you without having to carry spare reel bobins. This way you both save some space, and money!
You just need a little bit of technique to change your flyline quickly: you take the whole head out of the rod, so you can have the connection in your hand ; then, you roll up the head on your fingers by starting with the tippet ; when your shooting head is completely spooled, untie the loop on loop connection and pass your shooting head inside the wide loop ; remove the shooting head, put another one on, that you will gently unspool. That’s it, you’re ready to go fishing with another line density and it took less than two minutes. Cool, isn’t it?
To talk a little bit more about the technical features of those shooting heads, the Outboud Short shooting heads are super short (30ft), they load up the rod very quickly and cast like rockets. They are able to turn over those big hairy flies and cast them at 30m in two false casts. Which is something you’re gonna appreciate when fishing in lakes, big rivers or in saltwater. They land nicely and straight thanks to a well designed taper.
The only drawback with the shooting heads is the connection with the running line. The loop on the head (that you attach to the running line) can be pretty thick on the low density flylines (floating, intermediate), and do not come in very easily through the guides, especially if you haul the line when the connection is in the guides. To get rid of this disadvantage, you got two possibilities. The first one is to really get the whole head out of the rod (with a couple of meters of running line) before hauling, which is very easy to do thanks to the casting efficiency of those shooting heads. The second one is to replace the welded loop by a braided loop (same as for the flyline-leader connection) that will be thinner and go more easily through the guides.
I’ve used my shooting heads the whole summer, in mountain lakes, in large rivers in Sweden, on the Leman Lake to fish for perch in 15m of water, and it has been a delight to fish with them! With those Outbound Short shooting heads you have something that is super efficient, and offers a cheap and not bulky solution to have several flylines densities with you, when you travel or when you go fishing on favourite spot close to yours!